Saving Seafood

Using Science to Support the Chesapeake Bay’s Rockfish Population

April 29, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Heading out on the Chesapeake Bay for trophy rockfish season is a treasured rite of spring for recreational anglers. In the Chesapeake, fishermen often call striped bass “rockfish” because these fish often hang out near oyster reef “rocks.”

But this year, the spring season will be a bit diminished in the Chesapeake with a later start, and fewer days, that has been the case in the past. Changes implemented by Maryland and Virginia in 2019 will continue in 2021. This is part of a broader effort to help the striped bass population rebound.

Reports from anglers and fishermen and scientific data both indicate that the population is declining. Analyses by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission show that the striped bass population along the Atlantic Coast is decreasing. Every year, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources reports on the species by tracking an index of juvenile striped bass. The survey was started in 1954. Since then, the average index is 11.5 (arithmetic mean catch per haul); the index in fall 2020 was 2.5. In the last decade, six years have been below average. That means there are fewer fish to grow into the spawning stock.

Read the full release here

Federal government makes 22,000 more H-2B visas available this year

April 21, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday, 20 April announced that it would make another 22,000 H-2B visas available for businesses, such as seafood processors, that rely on seasonal laborers.

In a statement, the federal agency said feedback from businesses that rely on the visa program to staff summer operations led to the expansion. DHS said many of those businesses were unable to hire American workers to fill critical positions.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office Shares Biennial Report to Congress

April 9, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office’s Biennial Report to Congress (pdf, 9 pages) includes a snapshot of work we accomplished during fiscal years 2019 and 2020. Highlights include:

  • Completing the restoration of 350 acres of oyster reef in the Little Choptank River in Maryland—the largest oyster restoration project in the world to date.
  • Maintaining a system of buoys that allow for near-real-time observations of the Bay’s changing water and weather conditions.
  • Providing $5.2 million in funding to support watershed education for 53,000 students and 1,700 teachers.
  • Funded fish and habitat science with a focus on state and federal fisheries management needs for striped bass, summer flounder, black sea bass, and invasive blue catfish.
  • Supporting the design of three nearshore habitat restoration projects in coastal Virginia, which will enhance coastal resiliency and provide habitat for commercially and recreationally important fish.

For more details and to learn about other aspects of our work in fisheries and habitat science, restoration, climate, education, and more, we invite you to read through the report.

Maryland Rockfish Limits Set, Including July Closure

March 30, 2021 — After proposals and public comment, we now know what rockfish limits will look like in Maryland this season.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued striped bass harvest regulations for recreational anglers and charter boat clients for the summer and fall fishery, May 16–Dec. 10, 2021. This year will be a split season, closing Maryland waters to all striper fishing July 16–31. No private anglers or charter boat guests and crews may target striped bass, even catch-and-release, during those two weeks.

DNR designed this seasonal closure to avoid the period when water quality and high temperatures are most stressful and harmful to striped bass in the upper Bay, according to DNR’s own data. Virginia and D.C. also have seasonal closures: Virginia closes its striped bass season for the lower Chesapeake from June 15 to October 4, while the Potomac River is closed to all targeting of striped bass fishing from July 7 through August 20.

Outside of the Maryland summer closure period, private recreational anglers may keep one striped bass per day, with a minimum size of 19 inches. Charter boat clients may keep two stripers per day, with a minimum size of 19 inches, provided the boat’s captain participates in DNR’s daily electronic reporting system. During any chartered fishing trip, neither the captain nor mate may land or possess rockfish for personal consumption.

Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Magazine

THE VIRGINIAN PILOT: Congress must ban drilling off Virginia coast

March 16, 2021 — For a state heavily dependent on Navy operations and tourism to drive its economy, particularly in Hampton Roads, Virginia should welcome efforts to permanently ban oil and gas exploration off the coast.

The prospect of drilling rigs perched in the Atlantic — with their perpetual threat of environmental calamity — should send shivers across the commonwealth, and a new push to enact a ban deserves Virginia’s enthusiastic endorsement.

Rep. Donald McEachin, a Democrat representing Virginia’s 4th Congressional District, introduced a bill barring the Interior Department from issuing leases for exploration or production of oil or gas off Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware. McEachin has introduced similar legislation in the past, but it got nowhere.

In recent years, the fate of drilling off Virginia’s coast has been swinging in the partisan political winds.

Read the full story at The Virginian Pilot

More delays for wind farm off Delaware coast

March 15, 2021 — For the second time in less than a year, and this time for much longer, Ørsted is pushing back the expected commissioning date for its Skipjack Wind Farm off the coast of Delaware.

In an announcement Feb. 26, Brady Walker, Mid-Atlantic market manager for Ørsted, said the Danish company had notified the Maryland Public Service Commission that it now expects Skipjack to achieve commercial operations by the end of the second quarter of 2026.

In April 2020, Ørsted announced it was pushing the anticipated completion date for the 120-megawatt-producing wind farm back one year, from 2022 to 2023. At the time, company officials said the reasons for that delay were because of COVID and the federal government taking longer to analyze the impacts from the build-out of U.S. offshore wind projects.

Read the full story at the Cape Gazette

ASMFC Sciaenid Board Supplemental Materials Now Available

March 10, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental materials for the March 18th webinar of the Commission’s Sciaenid Management Board are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/SciaenidBoardSupplementalMaterials_March2021.pdf. They include a de minimis request from the Potomac River Fisheries Commission and public comment. The details of the meeting follow.

Meeting Overview
The Sciaenid Board will consider approval of state implementation plans to reduce recreational and commercial harvest of Atlantic croaker and spot in response to declining trends in abundance and harvest identified in the latest Traffic Light Approach (TLA) report. In October 2020, based on the TLA, the Board initiated a management response as outlined in Addendum III for each species. Specifically, the Addendum requires states to implement a 50-fish bag limit for their recreational fisheries for each species and reduce commercial harvest by 1% of the average state commercial harvest from the previous 10 years. De minimis states, which have minimal commercial and/or recreational fisheries, are not required to change their measures. However, states with more restrictive measures in place are encouraged to maintain them. The Board will also review the Spot Fishery Management Plan Review and state compliance reports, and receive an update on the ongoing red drum simulation stock assessment.

The main meeting materials are available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/SciaenidBoardMaterials_March2021.pdf.

Webinar Instructions
To register for the webinar go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6403860697365421070, Webinar ID# 815-817-291. The webinar will begin 30 minutes prior to the start of the meeting so that people can troubleshoot any connectivity or audio issues they may encounter. If you are having issues with the webinar (connecting to or audio related issues), please contact Chris Jacobs at 703.842.0790.

If you are joining the webinar but will not be using VoIP, you can may also call in at 877.309.2071 (a pin will be provided to you after joining the webinar); see webinar instructions for details on how to receive the pin. For those who will not be joining the webinar but would like to listen in to the audio portion only, you can do so by dialing 877 309 2071 (access code: 389-114-411).

Public Comment

Submitting Comments Prior to the Meeting
Public comment may be provided in advance of the meeting by sending comments to comments@asmfc.org no later than March 15 (Subject line: Sciaenid Board). These will be distributed to the Board on March 16.

Providing Comments at the Meeting
For issues that are not on the agenda, the Board Chair will provide an opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the Board’s attention at the start of the meeting. The Board Chair will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the Board Chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak. For topics that are on the agenda, the Board Chair will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. The Chair has the flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the Chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the Board.

For more information, please contact Savannah Lewis, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at slewis@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office Announces Fisheries Research Funding Opportunity

March 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Up to $250,000 in total fiscal year 2021 grant funds is available to support research into how key Chesapeake Bay fisheries species change their behavior to deal with changing habitat and climate. The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office’s Fisheries Research Program invites applications through April 26, 2021.

Climate change is already affecting the Chesapeake Bay—and the wildlife that lives there. Between 1901 and 2017, the average air temperature in the Chesapeake Bay watershed rose (depending on location in the watershed) between 0.4 and 2.5 degrees F. Increases in water temperature can affect fish spawning areas and migratory patterns. We also expect a shift to more frequent high-precipitation storms, which will affect salinity levels. That in turn will affect fish species distribution and diversity.

We want to better understand how key Chesapeake Bay fisheries species will be affected as conditions change. Resource managers can include that science in their decision-making process. Projects funded through this grant will help us gain that knowledge.

The grants will also provide funding to improve social science around fisheries and habitat. We hope to quantify the role of nearshore habitat for local communities and fisheries in the Middle Peninsula area of Virginia. There are many habitat conservation and shoreline restoration efforts under way there.

We want to help develop the next generation of scientists in NOAA’s mission areas. We are interested in supporting research projects that employ and educate undergraduate or graduate students from groups underrepresented in marine science careers, including minorities.

The deadline for application is April 26, 2021. We invite potential applicants to learn more about the application process by joining us for a webinar on February 26 at 1 p.m. EST.

Read the full release here

Maryland oyster industry may be forever altered by COVID-19 pandemic

March 3, 2021 — The pandemic-impacted oyster season has been difficult for the industry in Maryland, causing farmers and watermen to rethink how they sell their product and changing how programs conduct oyster restoration.

After restaurants reduced their capacity and a stay-at-home order was issued last spring, restaurant sales essentially went to zero within a matter of a week, said Scott Budden, founder of Orchard Point Oyster Co. headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland.

Pre-pandemic, Orchard Point Oyster Co. would primarily sell to restaurants, either directly to the chef or through regional distributors and wholesalers. Since April, they have transitioned to directly selling to the public, through local pickups and cold shipping, Budden said.

Read the full story at Delmarva Now

Ørsted announces another delay to Skipjack Wind Farm near Ocean City

March 1, 2021 — A proposed offshore wind farm off the coast of Ocean City has been delayed again, according a statement from the company planning the project.

Ørsted announced Friday its expected completion date for its Skipjack Wind Farm has been delayed to sometime in mid-2026. Friday’s announcement was the second delay by Ørsted is the last two years.

The Skipjack Wind Farm is one of two offshore wind farms currently in development. Both wind farms are slated to sit at least 10 miles from the Ocean City beach, with the Skipjack project residing further north toward the Delaware state line than the MarWin Wind Farm being planned by U.S. Wind.

Ørsted officials informed state regulators with the Maryland Public Service Commission about the delay on Thursday, but didn’t specify what’s causing the postponement.

Read the full story at Delmarva Now